Immigrant rights groups and some top Hispanic Republicans argue that the GOP’s only hope of winning over Hispanic voters is to legalize illegal immigrants — but an academic report being released Wednesday that studied the 2006 election suggests that Hispanics don’t reward pro-immigration Republicans.
George Hawley, who teaches political science at the University of Houston, crunched the numbers and found that Republicans who backed immigration reform in that election didn’t fare better with Hispanic voters, and in fact probably suffered overall thanks to a drop in support from white voters.